31. If you could only watch 5 movies for the rest of your life, what would they be? Chicago, Thirteenth Warrior, Grease I & II, and either Alexander or King Arthur…

32. Favorite television shows? Ummm… Grace Under Fire, Dexter, The Tudors, House

33. Who are you going to be with tonight? Just me & the boy (who’s finally asleep!) – Hunny is off delivering vehicles in Nebraska, (I think – he’s somewhere out west!)

34. Are you too forgiving? sometimes…ok, usually – anger and/or hatred take entirely too much energy to maintain!

35. What was the dumbest thing you ever did? I’ve done a lot of dumb things. None stand out as the dumbest

36. What is your best friend(s) doing tomorrow? probably playing Evercrack (quest) or a similar RPG

37. Ever have cream puffs? Surely I have.

38. Last time you cried? Can’t remember, it’s been quite a while – because I think women use tears as a manipulation tool, I find it hard to cry & still respect myself – weird, huh?

39. What was the last question you asked? Are you laying down?

40. Favorite time of the year? Christmas – as if you couldn’t tell

41. Do you have any tattoos? Enough for several people

42. Are you sarcastic? is a frog’s ass water tight?

43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? No, I’ve never even heard of it.

44. Ever walked into a wall? Pretty sure I haven’t, but it has gotten quite drunk out in the past…

45. Favorite color? kinda a rusty, burnt orangish color

46. Have you ever slapped someone? Yes I have

48. What was the last CD you bought? good googly-moogly It’s been way too many years ago for me to even try to think that far back…

49. Do looks matter? no

50. Are you a selfish person? not usually, however, I am what could be termed selfish in some odd ways – for example, if I start something, I hate someone else to try to finish it, like at work, I often feel I am the only one who can "do it right" (in my own defense, this feeling is based on previous experience in that particular situation(?), position (?) whatever), so if I start working on a "problem" I don’t want someone else doing my follow up…

I find this subject closer & closer to my heart. I’m not homosexual – well not completely – I am not part of a same sex partnership at this time….but so many of the people I really think of as friends ARE. The FRIENDS….This just kind touched me, so I figgered I’d throw it out at you…

An engineering professor is treating her husband, a loan officer, to dinner for finally giving in to her pleas to shave off the scraggly beard he grew on vacation. His favorite restaurant is a casual place where they both feel comfortable in slacks and cotton/polyester-blend golf shirts. But, as always, she wears the gold and pearl pendant he gave her the day her divorce decree was final. They’re laughing over their menus because they know he always ends up diving into a giant plate of ribs but she won’t be talked into anything more fattening than shrimp. Quiz: How many biblical prohibitions are they violating? Well, wives are supposed to be ‘submissive’ to their husbands (I Peter 3:1). And all women are forbidden to teach men (I Timothy 2:12), wear gold or pearls (I Timothy 2:9) or dress in clothing that ‘pertains to a man’ (Deuteronomy 22:5). Shellfish and pork are definitely out (Leviticus 11:7, 10) as are usury (Deuteronomy 23:19), shaving (Leviticus 19:27) and clothes of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19). And since the Bible rarely recognizes divorce, they’re committing adultery, which carries the rather harsh penalty of death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:22). So why are they having such a good time? Probably because they wouldn’t think of worrying about rules that seem absurd, anachronistic or – at best – unrealistic. Yet this same modern-day couple could easily be among the millions of Americans who never hesitate to lean on the Bible to justify their own anti-gay attitudes. ~Deb Price, And Say Hi To Joyce

Yes, I know, I’ve been slacking, and I apologize to those who have come here to find the same thing, day after day…Let’s see, where do I start..? The new phone of the previous post has been replaced by an HTC Touch Pro – the Mogul is cool, but a little bulkier than what I was wanting. Any Sprint customers out there looking for a new phone? Well, phone & pocket pc. It does about a bazillion cool things, and I’m selling it.
I have been working (for me…) a jacked up shift of 8-5. Have I mentioned I’m not a morning person? Oh yeah…once or twice. In order for me to be at work by 8, and not killing anyone & everyone, I have to get up at 4:30. Yep, you read that right – 4:30…in the morning…nothing like going to bed while it’s still daylight to mess your world all up!
So I haven’t been doing much of nothing beyond work, sleep, and driving from the place I do one to the place I do the other. I haven’t even been following my favorite blogs 😦 Hopefully now that I’m almost back to normal hours (volunteered for 9:00-6:30 on Friday) I’ll be able to do a little more stuffs.
My boy has finally lost his other front tooth. From the looks of the one that has grown in, he’s been cursed with my big teeth, but it looks like the (huge, horrible, almost unavoidable) family (as in damn near every cousin from my Mom’s side of the family) overbite. So I’m hoping…
Ok work calls, will try to get back here sooner…
🙂

Today I got a new phone – well okay, new TO ME, but still – technicalities…

Anyway WOOOHOOOO!!!! I got a new toy! It’s an HTC Mogul 6800, essentially a little computer. It has windows mobile, most of the Office suite, and a whole bunch of other cool shit! We also transferred Hunny’s stuff to my old (if you can call something that is 2 months old "old"..)phone, which is a Motorola Renegade – really not anything to shake a stick at itself 🙂

So, new phone means needs personalization – wallpapers, ringtones, pictures, etc. Which leads me to the reason for this post…as I was cruising the Sprint (yeah I know, but I’m trapped for another year…) website looking for new stuffs, I started to get disgusted. $5.99 for a "theme" – essentially 3 screens. $2.99 for a ringtone. And on top of that, adding insult to injury, they’re censored…I can understand OFFERING censored ringtones, I’m not stoopid, I know a lot of kids have cell phones, and not all music is appropriate for all kids, but censored as the only option..? That sucks. They do have some decent themes – and yes, I broke down and bought ONE. I’d have bought several at $2 a piece…Hell, I’d probably have spent more than I did, but at 6 bucks a piece, I am limiting myself to one. Here’s the winner… Sun & Moon Tattoo Theme.

But I didn’t boot up the old Windows Live Writer to brag (is it bragging when your just sharing your excitement..?) about my new phone. Once I was thoroughly disgusted with the pricing, I thought "Why can’t I just MAKE myself some ringtones..?"

"Because, while you aren’t really technologically challenged, you have no idea how to do it…" was the obvious answer. So, I told the answering party to shut the Hell up and did a Google search on making ringtones – surely there were instructions somewhere on the big. bad web. I have audio players, it can’t be that hard, right..?

Well my friends, lemme tell ya. It is WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY easier than I ever imagined! Simply click on Make Ringtones, upload a music file -any music file – from your computer, put the little arrow marker thingys where you want the ringtone to start & end, and click on "Make A Ringtone" Then you download it to your computer & transfer it to the ringtone folder on the phone. How easy is that..?

I am aware I am sometimes woefully behind on things, so if you already were aware of this, or a similar, site all I have to say is WHY DIDN’T YOU SHARE….???? Pffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttt!!!!!

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the1500s: These are interesting..!

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying “Dirt poor”. The wealthy had slate floors That would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a “thresh hold”

(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could ”bring home the bacon” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of “holding a wake”

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the ….”graveyard shift”) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, “saved by the bell” or was considered a “dead ringer”. And that’s the truth…Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

Some worthwhile, reasonable, uplifting thoughts herein. Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written." My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone. 8. It’s OK to get angry with God/dess. S/He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. 10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. 11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present. 12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry. 13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it. 15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks. 16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind. 17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful. 18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger. 19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else. 20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special. 22. Over prepare, then go with the flow. 23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple. 24. The most important sex organ is the brain. 25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you. 26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ”In five years, will this matter?". 27. Always choose life. 28. Forgive everyone everything. 29. What other people think of you is none of your business. 30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time. 31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. God/dess loves you because of who God/dess is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do. 35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. 40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back. 41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 42. The best is yet to come. 43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 44. Yield. 45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift. Remember that I will always share my spoon with you! Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.

This is an apology for not posting regularly the last little while. I had to take my 6 year old to the doctor twice more in the last two weeks – the last time was a new doctor, who has made a completely different (but much more logical) determination regarding the stomach problems he has been suffering with. He also has some funky allergies on top of the stomach stuffs (chocolate, apples & bananas) When we took him to our usual doctor again they told me his stomach problems are stemming from being allergic to milk (probably his favorite drink, really!) and wheat – you know, bread to make PB&J sandwiches, breading on chicken nuggets (one of his fav foods) the crust on pizza, most cereals. While this made no sense to me (if these allergies are causing the problem, why didn’t the problem start YEARS AGO when he first started ingesting these items..? AND they DIDN’T check to confirm the stuff we have had reactions to. And backtracking for a minute, they made this determination by testing his blood. We have had a standing order to get his blood drawn for testing for respiratory allergies for a while. We just hadn’t gotten it done due to scheduling issues. When there for the stomach (again, I might add) it was determined this needed to be done to also check for possible causes of the pain. Luckily Hunny was with me, and even more luckily (for the nurse) he was between me & her.

She initially brought out an adult blood draw syringe. I mentioned to her that my veins, while looking like a junkies dream are actually a phlebotomist’s nightmare, small, and "rolly" They play Hell trying to start an IV or draw blood from me. They have to use a "butterfly" needle, made for drawing from infants, to succeed on me. She (finally, after a bit of "argument" with me) got a butterfly. Then she missed. Yep, she missed his vein. And instead of just saying "Oops, I missed, let’s try the other arm." She then proceeded to "dig" in his arm for the vein (those of you who have had blood drawn know what I mean – they pull the needle part way out then push it back in, several times, in an effort to find the vein they missed…) He’s SIX. And in tears & shaking, from pain & fear. As I said, lucky for her Hunny was physically between me & her. Or she’d have been on the floor & I’d have been in jail. She ended up having to use the other arm any ways, after all that…

There is a point to this, I promise…

When they called 10 days later with the results, I asked what the respiratory results had been and was told they results weren’t back yet. Four hours later I received another call – they didn’t order the respiratory tests and want me to get his blood drawn again….Somehow I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

So Friday when He was again having stomach pain & vomiting, I called a different doctor. They got me in that day (in like an hour!). We did the history stuffs, and I went over everything above with her. She said instead of trying to draw blood again right away, she wanted to try Zyrtec. Back to being related & similar reactions amongst family members, I mentioned my experience with that particular medicine – not good. Can we say Zombified..? As a child, he is still in the stage where the adult reactions seem to be opposite, so we’re looking at a possible reaction of super-hyper – in a kid who doesn’t stop as it is, and sleeps very little…she agreed it might not be the right thing, but asked me to try it "on a day I could be with him all day to gauge the side-effects. But then she also suggested nasal spray. The stuff for allergies, prescription, and gave me a sample. She also said the one I have at home (that was for Hunny but that he says his allergies aren’t bad enough to need…) is the same thing and can be used. The difference is AMAZING! For a kid who goes through a box of Kleenex a week, constantly sniffling, sneezing & coughing – just WOW! No sniffles, no sneezes, no need for Kleenex, and his cough has diminished tremendously!!!! She also said that all of the drainage from the allergies could be contributing to his stomach problems…Then she sent us across the way to get an X-ray of his tummy, and said something about possibly needing to go to Riley Hospital for Children’s GI dept if it didn’t provide an answer… But it did – or at least a good possible. Apparently, despite the fact that he uses the bathroom usually twice a day (I know, I know, TMI) his bowels are completely full of old stool. She has him taking a very mild stool softener twice a day in an effort to get it emptied out and put an end to the pain being caused by his body not having anywhere to put new waste when he eats. They had done a similar X-ray in Jan when I took him to the ER the second time, so they had a reference. Our doctor had those results, too.

Now I have to wonder, why didn’t our regular doctor do these things, try these options – things that seem to be having a positive impact on my boy? That office has XRay equipment IN THE OFFICE, why didn’t it occur to them to do an X-Ray? Why was I given "Oh, just give him a Pepcid everyday and he’ll be fine."? Why wasn’t that modified the 2nd, or even 3rd time he was there for THE SAME ISSUES? Why did I have to go to a different doctor to be taken seriously? (at least that’s how it feels, like I was getting the old "Mom’s over re-act, it’s not that serious" I’m not a doctor, but I am my child’s mother – not my first go round, if you’ll remember I also have two adult children – and yet when I told them "The child had a broken arm & refused any pain meds, saying it didn’t hurt that bad, but is IN TEARS over the pain in his belly")

I’m fairly certain I have found a new doctor for my boy…add to that my Hunny, who is diabetic, has had sugar readings lately in the 350-400 range, who will also lose his job (he is a truck driver, holds a CDL) if he has to start taking insulin, as federal law says insulin=no CDL. He meds have been increased, and he’s gone back to the proper diet, and reduced the stress he had – a whole nother post, which may eventually end up on The Life & Times… – and it is coming down, but still isn’t where it needs to be…But now I have another problem – he sees the same doctor my boy was seeing. Has he messed up regarding Hunny..?

All of that on top of the medical crap I have to deal with, as well as work, bills, and general living, well, I haven’t kept up with posting like I should. Things seem to be calming down some, so hopefully I will be back in my routine soon. Until then, please be patient with me…

My Visitors – Welcome!

About Me

I am a 41 - oops, not anymore! - 42 year old witch - yes, witch, not b*tch spelled nicely :) Despite general perceptions, we live a pretty ordinary life, as you'll see if you stick around... I have been married to my perfect match for 9WE MADE 10! years, and I have 4 kids - Jenetta 23 almost 25, Tony 22 23, his wife Jayme 21 22, and Shayne 5 6 (going on 16...). There are also grandkids involved - Jordan who is 1 2 and Anakin who was born the end of Feb. last year and is now 2!